5/18/2010

This URL used to point to a 32 bit VHD that would work in Virtual PC on just about any 32 bit Windows from XP on. According to the link above It now requires:

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is required to use this virtual machine

In addition to the system requirements for Windows Server 2008 as described in the release notes, a 64-bit system with hardware-assisted virtualization enabled and data execution prevention (DEP) is required.

It is also recommended to ensure that you have a clean install of x64 edition of Windows Server 2008 to be able to use the Hyper-V technology.

When I try to start this VHD from VPC I see the initial BIOS startup and then a black screen. The base PC’s Task Manager shows a lot of CPU activity, but nothing but a black screen in VPC.

Doing some web searching it appears that it can be made to run on VPC, but you will need to have access to a machine with Hyper-V to “fix” it.